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Facebook is apparently purchasing Instagram for $19 billion. That’s $9 billion more than Google offered. $19 BILLION for a company that whose main purpose is to share pictures because sending your pictures as an attachment via email or text message is just too troublesome.

Must have missread the article I read. Cross-platform subscription instant messaging service? Sounds like something Yahoo, Skype, Google, and Facebook has been doing for years. Besides, that’s what email and text messages are for.

Actually, it seems that most of the screamers who rant about “moochers” and “takers” have, at some point in their lives, “used” government programs, themselves..G.I. Bill? Did their parents take out VA mortgages? FHA Loans? Unemployment? Subsidized housing? Public Education grants to school districts? Social Security? Medicare? Disaster relief? Farm subsidies? Travelled on roads and freeways subsidized with government or state funds? Used other infrastructure built with public funds? Employed persons educated with government funds?.Many Republicans quietly applied for and accepted TARP and emergency funds, and then railed against such profligate wastage of gubmint money. Republican politicians accept Federal money for disaster relief, and then apportion it with political favoritism and cronyism. This year,13 Republicans and 2 Democrats in the house benefited from Farm Subsidies – and then Republicans inserted verbiage in the Farm Bill so they wouldn’t have to report receiving those subsidies (didn’t make ’em look good, when they screamed about people sucking on the government teat)..There are more examples, but the point is that there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around, and the loudest screamers in the bunch (Republicans) – methinks they doth protesteth too much.

The rancher in Idaho who was protesting taxes and had his ranch surrounded by FBI got lots of sympathy. Until he was caught when he went into town to pick up his CRP check (conservation reserve program check where you get paid for NOT planting wheat).

trying to lump large groups of people together is always a bad idea (35 million in the case of the USA). However picking out anecdotes will not provide useful information. Using anecdotes one could reasonably suggest that putting all of ones savings into lottery tickets would be a good idea. after all, somebody always wins and some people win with one ticket

Dude. Right wing media has been screaming for years about welfare queens, people who are living off welfare, lazy unemployed people living off unemployment checks – poor people who are too stupid, lazy, or unwilling to better themselves – and it’s all their (the poor, the unemployed) fault..They. Have. Said. This. All. The. Time.

What Nick misses here, via his broad brush approach, is that most Conservatives understand the NEED for public assistance… but also can draw the distinction between assistance and dependence… something Liberals seem incapable of doing. In fact, Jan Koum is a great example of how the system is supposed to work: get assistance when needed, but don’t sit on your duff and expect the help to never end… get out there, work hard and make something of yourself. That formula really shouldn’t be that hard to follow or understand.

And I’m sure Mr. Koum will be paying much more in income taxes than he ever collected in welfare or food stamps. Is this a wonderful country, or what? Another example of why immigration should be encouraged.

About Nick Anderson

Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle is an avowed independent who covers politics and contemporary cultural issues in a way that connects with readers. His loose, idiosyncratic style carries with it an unconventional message that has broad appeal. "I approach my work with a healthy skepticism for the ideological extremists littering our political landscape," explains Anderson.